Sorry that it's coming so late, first day of regular office hours and the school being officially open, so I'm swamped at work and will be holding extra late hours! Fear not, I will continue with my MWF schedule, there will just be a short adjustment period.
| Spider-Man #542 (Back in Black 4 of 5): This is during the short run when Peter dons a black suit (non-organic, mind you!) during a dark time in his life -- after unveiling his secret identity to the public during Civil War, Aunt May his shot by a sniper. Peter finds out that the Kingpin is behind it, even though he is in prison. Peter is not happy about this. He breaks into the prison and proceeds to brutally beat the Kingpin in front of his men. The kicker comes when Peter takes of his costume and tells Wilson Fisk that he isn't fighting him as Spider-Man, he's fighting him as Peter Parker. It's an intense moment delivered well and is a good issue featuring the Black Suit and no suit, so it's almost a two in one for this post. |
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| Civil War (Part 7): This occurs at the end of the Civil War event, and is one of my favorite moments in the entire arc. It is Spidey back in his original suit after changing sides and ditching his Iron Spider costume. This scene shows Spider-Man's agility, moving so past that there are multiple images of him in the same frame. That is something I've always enjoyed seeing in Spidey comics, and I appreciate Spidey getting the jump on Reed Richards as well. |  |
| The Amazing Spider-Man #410 (Web of Carnage 2 of 4): In this run, Ben Reilly, as Spider-Man, joins with the Carnage symbiote. He attempts to contain it within himself so it can't get out and do any more damage. This is during one of the tense moments between Peter and Ben, when they're trying to determine who the clone actually is, and Peter doesn't have his powers to back him up when he confronts Spider-Carnage. It's a terrible '90s story line, but Spider-Carnage has an awesome design that I'd like to see more of (I'm looking at you, upcoming Minimum Carnage mini-series!) As an aside, I also love Ben Reilly's redesign of the classic Red and Blues, so this is another issue/run that hits two for one on this post. |  |
| The Amazing Spider-Man #650: I'll be honest, I don't love the Tron look that Spidey (and several other heroes) have been trying on. That being said, Big Time (the run this outfit appears in) and this suit are noteworthy for a few things -- I enjoy the art, it features the new Hobgoblin (an improvement simply because he's a unique character), and Peter is finally using his brain again when it comes to the hero side of his life! This costume was created and designed by Peter, as opposed to Iron Man's Iron Spidey suit, the last technological advanced suit Spidey wore. There have been more since (Spider-Armor Mk II, Anti-Sinister Six), but this is the start of Spidey showing that he's got more than just Spider-Powers at his disposal. |  |
| The Amazing Spider-Man #500: Anyone who knows me or has been following this blog for a bit probably expected to see a Scarlet Spider issue here or somewhere on the list. You'd be right in thinking it's my favorite Spider-Costume, but this list is devoted to Spider-Man; Scarlet Spider just doesn't cut it (though I did still sneak Ben in here). This costume, known as the "Final" Costume, is only glimpsed briefly in a vision Spider-Man has of his final stand. This is why he shouldn't get between magic users when they want to fight it out. I'm simply putting it here because I think it is one of the more interesting redesigns I've seen and I'd be very interested to actually see Spidey use it some time (he did receive it two issues after witnessing it in the future). |  |
That's it! Some interesting issues featuring decent costumes and some interesting costumes featured in acceptable issues.
I do have three honorable mentions that just missed the cut:
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Next time I'm switching it up again! I'm going to list my top five suggested novels, and I'll make sure to stay away from any I used in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy edition!
By far the most fascinating thing when it comes to Spider-Man's costume is the fact that irrespective of how numerous changes are made to its layout, it has been able to retain its famous appearance. Hardly ever have all of us looked over a number of Spider-Man costume and believed that it was another outfit.
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right. Even the dramatically different ones (here, I'd say Iron Spider and otherwise the Future Foundation suit) are still instantly recognizable as Spider-Man.
DeleteInterestingly enough, Marvel hasn't made their Scarlet Spiders (Ben and Kaine) into characters that are confused for Spidey, so I suppose they're doing something right with their costume designs.